The Reversal
by Anifan1
Summary: (revised and updated) Aurora is an involuntary Controller, but after uncovering some important blackmail, she discovers a way to get her freedom.
1. The Beginning

On a dark and positively dreary day at the Yeerk pool, the young human host Aurora Brownfield sat miserably in the metal cage. It would be her only free time for three whole days, what with the cursed slug in her. She wanted to believe that she hated Armine five-six-eight more than anything else in the world. But the truth of the matter was, Armine wasn't a particularly cruel Yeerk. She didn't taunt Aurora very much or torture her by replaying horrible memories (not that she had very many). Mainly she just left her alone, ignoring her.

Perhaps it would have been easier to hate the Yeerk if the Yeerk acted cruelly towards her.

Aurora sighed and glanced at her watch. Ten more minutes. As boring as it was to just sit in a cage for two hours, being able to do almost nothing to entertain herself, what would come next would be worse. There was nothing worse in her fourteen year old mind than reinfestation after two hours of freedom.

Again, she looked around at the cage. Looked for a means of escape. It was relatively empty. One human boy was sitting next to her, sobbing. He looked like he was about eighteen or so.

Could she use one of her hair pieces to pick the lock?

It was certainly worth a try.

But just then, the Hork-Bajir guards opened the door and grabbed at her. As usual, she put up a fight, resisting as much as she could. Anything to delay infestation for a few more minutes. She screamed, yelled, cursed, hissed, and spat at the Hork-Bajir, but, of course, they won in the end.

They always did.

They dragged her into the line and pushed her head into the water. She struggled as much as she could. She tried to move her head out of the way, tried to put her hands over her ears to prevent that vile Yeerk from entering her head.

Of course, it was pointless as usual.

Armine entered her head and slowly paralyzed the young girl, until the only screams that were head were the ones in her head.

_Tiresome girl; Evil worm,_ the host and Yeerk thought at the same time, each heard by the other.

Had the two been members of the same species, this perhaps would have been the cause for laughter. Aurora only mentally clenched her teeth and fumed inwardly, ignoring the slug.

Armine sighed.

_Must you always carry on like that? It makes reinfestation much more painful than it needs to be._ Armine spoke as though she were a parent scolding a four year old.

_So says the body snatcher._

_I realize that I am not your favorite person in the world_, Armine continued_, but what have I done to you, aside from infest you, that was so terrible? I haven't even looked at all of your memories yet. I haven't tortured you once. Many would be glad to have me as a Yeerk._ _Didn't realize I should feel so grateful. Excuse me, o mighty Yeerk._

Armine sighed.

_We'll be back here tomorrow night, _Aurora

_Why's that?_

_Innis captured the escafil device. We're going to be made morph capable._

_I'll trap myself._

_I wish you wouldn't. _Armine sounded wistful. _We'd have to stun you every three days, and I know how much you enjoy your temporary freedom._

_And whose fault is that?_

Aurora saw her Yeerk as the enemy. Tolerate it, fight it, don't give up. Never stoop down to being any more civil to it than absolutely necessary unless they do something to earn this. After all, a host still controlled his/her thoughts, his/her feelings. Therefore why should he/she give them up, sink to lower than the Yeerk itself by making the Yeerk's task easier? Maybe hosts chose to be involuntary simply because of the hatred the involuntary hosts had of the voluntary ones.

_Yours, if you're going to act that way. At least consider it._

Aurora turned away.

Aurora_, is it really that bad?_ Armine questioned. _I don't harm you. There are those that would. I haven't tried to take your family yet._

_You still have me._

Armine didn't particularly want to join the peace movement (aka the rebels). While she didn't enjoy infesting an involuntary host, she had no severe qualms about doing so. One would argue that this was because of her Yeerk training, her environment. She disliked the fact, for example, that Aurora hated her and wished that she was dead. She would have preferred to have Aurora, or any human host for that matter, be willing and agreeable. 

But this point of view probably came from infesting a voluntary twenty year old male, who understood the advantages of having a Yeerk inside one's head that had not even occurred to Armine until she thought them over.

And then she had been reassigned to Armine.

Armine thought back again to the days of her other human host. How well the two had gotten along. Armine had expected the worse, had been warned about the potential host rebellions and the unending screams. But the host's mind had been filled with innocent inquiries, none of which were accusatory. No anger was in his mind, though there was some anxiety at first. Mainly the host had been curious. They had never fought. The host was content to merely watch the world, and whatever word he spoke towards Armine was a decent one.

Yet Armine knew that the human had changed something in her, had made some part of her less cruel, less ready to break a host's mind without problems. Armine and the host had shared something resembling a friendship, which was much closer than most Yeerks became with hosts.

Armine began to imagine, began to picture what might have happened if Aurora could understand. The human boy knew the Yeerk perspective so well that Armine thought he must have been a Yeerk nothlit before. But he hadn't been- he had just been a regular boy.

_I wish it didn't have to be like this. I wish- I wish that you could understand. I don't like this. I didn't- didn't use to mind. But that's all over now. It's too late, for better or for worse, I understand humans now. I don't feel resentment, anger, envy, hatred, or anything like that to your kind. If only I could tell you this. If only. . ._ were the Yeerk's thoughts, nowhere nearly as organized as they were collected here. Nowhere near as comprehensive, for Armine only knew scatters of what she wanted. She often imagined being free from a host, but she knew that even the morphing power she would receive the next day would go to her host, not her.

She was a pawn.


	2. The Fight

_Well, we're here.__Let me know when the award ceremony is over and when you've done gloating. I don't want to ruin your fun,_ Aurora added a minute later as an afterthought.Armine smirked slightly. _Either way, you will see it. This is your body, after all. You can't just imagine that you're away from it.__I can try, slug._

Armine didn't say anything else- it wasn't worth arguing about. The Yeerk made its host body get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and head to the school.Aurora protesting the whole way, of course. Threatening to starve Armine of kandrona starvation until just before she died, where she would be tortured severely. This was Aurora's favorite way of spending her time.Armine, of course tried to tune her out, but having heard the rant so many times, she could say it in her sleep.

School wasn't exactly pleasant.

"Do not forget about tonight," a Controller warned Armine as the last class ended. "Or your head will be extracted from your body by force."

_Lovely,_ chirped Aurora.

Armine hid a giggle.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that, Adsoan five-three-two. I will not forget."

"I will see you in class tomorrow, then. I must go to my host's house to prepare for a ridiculous guitar lesson."

"Goodbye." The two departed, both to their separate homes to play the role of their hosts while the world remained for the most part was not invaded.

Armine had already prepared for how her host's parents would react to her going out at night. She knew that they would be annoyed, and certainly never grant her permission. That's why Armine would do something drastically out of character from her shy, obedient host. But she felt that she had no other choice.

She was going to sneak out. The girl was silent as Armine opened the window to climb out of the house. She had gotten a ladder earlier and lined it against her window. Armine had tested it before and it was steady enough. Armine planned to acquire as soon as possible so she could just fly inside the window for night missions and feedings.

Once they were at the Yeerk pool, Aurora could hear some of the screams. Rather than go directly to the pool, however, Armine went into a side room where a few other hosts were sitting.

The boy who had been free just yesterday was now standing, Yeerk controlled. He told them that they had done well and to place their hands on the box when he came around to them. Armine felt a spark when she touched it, but by the looks on the faces of everyone else, that was normal.

"There's a few caged animals here, including a skunk, a crow, and a snake. We removed its poison, but of course you'll have it in you when you morph it." He laughed evily. "And of course you can acquire anything else you want to. When you go to feed, if you have an involuntary host, let the Hork-Bajir guards know if they're to be stunned or placed in a Ramonite box. Otherwise they could be placed in a cage and escape. The very last thing we need.""Yes, sir," the others replied. Armine included, since she was lower than him."Dismissed. Report to your sub-Visser, or Visser," he added quickly, seeing that there were a few sub-Vissers there, "tomorrow."

_I'm not getting within ten feet of the skunk,_ Aurora informed Armine stubbornly. _Knowing your kind, it still smells, if not even worse._

_Ten feet? I'm not even setting eyes on it. I'll acquire the crow for now, and get the major animals at the Gardens after school tomorrow._

She walked to the cafeteria where the animals were placed. The skunk was the farthest away from the food. Armine put the girl's hand out and concentrated on the DNA of the crow. Once she was finished, they both hurried out of the pool area. Once they were in the woods, Armine stripped and began to morph.

Aurora had began to complain, but Armine pointed out that not only did no one know how to morph clothing, but those clothes would be the only pair there when Armine went back to feed in two days.

_If anyone sees me…_

Armine sighed. It's _dark, and even if it weren't no one would be here._  
Aurora tried to think about something else, anything else, when the morphing began. While it didn't exactly hurt, it was extremely weird and downright unnatural. Aurora's family and church was one that would condemn morphing as a satanic practice, but luckily Aurora had no say in what the Yeerk did and did not do while in her head.Eventually the process ended and Armine flew, a little confused for a moment, but able to control the instincts without much trouble. Perhaps she had been warned in the pool by Yeerks who had already gotten the power that hosts might try to take control. At any rate, Armine was obviously not going to be added to that number of Yeerks.Flying was pretty cool, but the crow's eyes were ones that saw in daylight. In the nighttime both Armine and Aurora were almost blind. It was only Aurora's past knowledge of which way to go that allowed them to get home before long.

Once inside, Armine demorphed, and saw that it was only 9:40. No one had noticed that Armine had sneaked out. Both could hear the sounds from the TV.

Completely naked now, Armine ran to Aurora's closet and got some pajamas. Armine had already brushed Aurora's teeth, but did so again (the bird's mouth had tasted terrible). The host and Yeerk fell asleep at the same time.

Armine woke up on the early side the next day. Her host's mind was still sleeping, and she didn't bother to wake her up. She stretched and got dressed, thinking about the morphs she would acquire and how she would kill the human rebels and be made a Visser.

When Aurora did wake up, Armine was already leaving for school.

_I want to get some more morphs today. Any suggestions?_ Armine asked.

Aurora was always grumpy in the morning, and being a host to a power hungry Yeerk only made her more irritable.

_Yeah. A nice bunny rabbit. They're cool._

_I suppose so. It might be a good morph for escaping_, Armine replied, considering the idea.

_Yeah right, you Yeerks are real hiders. Give me a break,_ Aurora snapped sullenly.

_Shut up._

_No, you shut up._

Armine snapped. _Do not tell me what to do! You are the slave, you _will_ shut up when I tell you to do so, or I will make you! _

Then, she realized that she had crossed the line.

There was a world of difference between the bickering that went on between Aurora and Armine, which could almost be considered friendly, and what Armine had just said.

_Aurora? I didn't mean it. I- I'm sorry,_ she said timidly.Aurora gave no immediate response. Finally, she spoke.

_Maybe it's time I told someone about that Andalite you saved._

Armine's mouth dropped open.

Aurora was, in many ways, ruthless. No, ruthless was the wrong word. Aurora had no desire to kill anyone, not even Armine. She wasn't one of those violent, rageful people who hated the world. Aurora was actually a very peaceful sort of girl, struck by incredibly bad luck at a young age. But Aurora was learning. Learning to take knowledge that she had and trade it in, always getting the better deal.

If reincarnation was possible, Armine would have swore that Aurora had been a Yeerk in a past life. For one thing, Aurora was quick to seize control. During the half second that Armine stood in shock, she had loosened her hold on Aurora. Aurora saw this and took advantage.

At first, Armine considered protesting but then realized that it would probably be the most advisable to just ignore it. For now. Aurora was already ticked off, and doing something else to annoy her would probably result in her doing something extremely risky. Like screaming about the Yeerks or something.

Aurora started walking again towards the school- they had been walking aimlessly while arguing. Luckily they hadn't gotten off route.

_You are the worst, most annoying, most stubborn host I have ever had_, hissed Armine.

_Thank you._


	3. The Morph

It took Armine three days, but she finally came around. It was right after her next visit to the Yeerk pool, and Aurora could not help but think how typical this was of her. She would have rolled her eyes if she could as she heard the Yeerk's "voice" in her head.

_Ok, what will it take to get you to be quiet about the whole Andalite thing?_

_Details._

_I'm not that dumb._

_Then why are you asking?_

_I don't know,_ Armine admitted.

_You already know. You've been in my head long enough to figure it out. You're not totally stupid._

_You want control._

_Duh._

Armine sighed. _You want complete control in all circumstances. Except it would blow my cover to agree to control with interaction with other Yeerks. However, since you're not going to stop whining… _

_There's a but in here somewhere. There must be._

_I'd like you to acquire a Yeerk morph.  
_  
_That's it?_

_That's it. Granted, I'd prefer it if you use the morph at least once, but that will not be one of the conditions for the deal._

_So let me get this straight. In exchange for my silence- and you do realize that I was not kidding when I said I would use the information against you- you'll surrender complete control whenever possible, provided that you can acquire a Yeerk morph for me. One that I will never be forced to use, but I will have._

_Yes._

Aurora considered. Her horror at having Yeerk DNA be part of her was stifled by the knowledge that either way, a Yeerk would be inside her mind.

Even so, Aurora considered, it was one thing to be an involuntary Controller. A completely separate thing to have the DNA as part of you forever.

She wasn't sure if she was willing to be part Yeerk, permanently.

On the other hand, there was no guarantee she would ever escape Yeerk control.

_Exactly,_ Armine responded to her thoughts.

Aurora wondered about Yeerk instincts. She had heard from other hosts that Yeerks were naturally evil, longing to take over beings and deprive them of all free will, actually reveling in their pain.

Of course, Aurora had heard this mainly from the Yeerk pool, and while she would trust many humans before Yeerks, she knew that being a slave to an alien slug would cause most humans- even the most honest ones- to bend the truth. And this was under normal circumstances. Aurora had also studied nationalism in History, and knew that demonization -basically, making the enemy out to be pure evil- was a good way of getting one's idea across. Additionally, humans didn't necessarily need to do this, since most of the Controllers already believed that Yeerks were evil, but it was completely human to stretch the truth even more.

_We're not evil by instinct._ Armine sounded hurt.

Aurora ignored her as she continued her musings.

The choice seemed to be obvious. True, she had only morphed once before, and yes it had been under Armine's control, but the Yeerk morph would be just that, a morph. It might be useful in the future, but it was just the DNA of another being, and might actually cause her more good than harm.

But why did Armine want Aurora to even acquire a Yeerk morph?

Fair enough, Aurora hadn't given her Yeerk much of a choice. There was an opportunity, and Aurora seized it. Armine had been too scared of blackmail (which Aurora knew that she might use if the chance ever came up, were she at odds with the Yeerk) to protest too violently, and perhaps this was some sort of revenge, some way of saying, "If you want to escape us partly, you have to become one of us."

This idea sickened Aurora, but she could see that it made sense. She tried to look at Armine in that light. Would this Yeerk do that to her host? It was possible, even probable, but was that her only goal? It could not have been just a way to give her host some possible help later on. And how would any later on work for Aurora? She had been a slave for months now, and she doubted that she would ever get a chance to fight the Yeerks like the Andalite Bandits. Aurora was a body for a Yeerk, and would stay that way unless the Yeerks lost.

_I am still here,_ Armine reminded her host.

_So it's partial control with the DNA inside of me forever vs. no control and no contamination of my blood_, Aurora thought to herself.

_It's not contamination, _Armine protested.

Of course, she then realized that Armine might eventually make Aurora acquire a Yeerk morph, and then she would be at a loss both ways. Just because Aurora said no now didn't mean it wouldn't ever be a possibility.

The choice seemed obvious.

_All right. I agree_, was the reply.

Armine knew what Aurora's response would be, heard her host thinking about the possibilities in her head, leading to the answer that made the most sense; yes. Even so, Armine was startled by the response, amazed that Aurora had thought it all through with such clarify.

Even more reason to admire their intelligence, she mused to herself. To Aurora, who was waiting patiently for the reply, though Armine could feel her nervousness, she replied, _All right. The next time I'm at the pool, I'll acquire one._

Armine made it seem as though it were merely an errand, as though she was getting a bag of cookies at the supermarket. In fact, it had a lot more importance to it. With this morph, Aurora would be able to understand Yeerks. Maybe this would bring the two together… something Armine secretly hoped for even though she knew it cause her to be looked down upon. Making a friendship with a host was not as treasonous as joining the Peace Movement, but it did cause the others to see you as less intelligent, almost retarded in human language. Armine knew that she would have to be careful until she figured everything out._Can't you acquire morphs other than the hand? _Aurora mused.

_Why do you ask?_

_All that needs to happen is for the DNA to enter the body. Well, can't you do that from inside?_

_Yes, that is possible,_ Armine admitted. _Okay, do you want to do it now?_

_Why not?_

_The being goes into a trance, so for a few seconds you either might have control or might be frozen. I'm not entirely sure how it works,_ Armine warned.

_Thanks for the warning._

It was the first time she had ever thanked Armine.

Of course, Aurora would respond to that by saying it was the first time Armine had ever done anything good.

_You're welcome._

Armine released control and Aurora focused on acquiring the Yeerk DNA. Armine felt herself slip into something of a trance, unwillingly loosening herself from Aurora's head. Her host took this opportunity to sit down.

_Now we morph._

_Really?_

_Yeah, why not._

_Do you want to, or should I? You haven't had much practice with it._

_And whose fault is that?_

_Please, let's not argue,_ Armine begged.__

Fine. You do it.

All right.  
  
The changes began as Armine concentrated, calling up the familiar (to her) DNA. Aurora hardly knew what to make of them, expecting to feel disgust and the sense of evil from the beginning of the transformation.

_Stop it!_ she screamed as her lungs disappeared. _We can't breathe!_

_It's okay. Yeerks breathe through their skin._

Five minutes later, the transformation was complete. Armine had provided a cup of water before beginning the process, and they inched forward to it.

_I can't see anything,_ Aurora complained.

_We're blind without hosts. Didn't you know that before?_

_Well, yes._

Pause.

_Do you want control?_ Armine questioned.

_Okay._

_The instincts aren't strong because there's no host. There's also no intense craving for Kandrona; you could last another three days if you desired.  
_  
_I have no desire to trap myself in this morph._

Armine laughed. _No, I don't blame you._

Armine let go of the body, the experience already strange and out of her frame of mind. It was one thing to be a Yeerk, a completely different thing to be in a host in a Yeerk morph. It was almost depressing, really. One earned a host as a way to be able to see the world, not join with the Yeerk limitations. But perhaps Aurora would understand the species more fully now that she was one of them.

_Can I demorph now? Are you happy?_ demanded Aurora.

Armine hid a mental sigh.

_Go right ahead._

The plan had not worked, but what could Armine do? She had made a promise to Aurora. Perhaps one day. . .

She knew, however, that this was very unlikely, if not impossible. No human would ever fully understand Yeerks, even if they had been in their body for a few moments.


End file.
